James Lalande: Approximate Art

He used to host gumbo parties at Andy Warhol's 'Factory,' and shared studio space with neo-expressionist avatar Julian Schnabel before his notoriety. Back in Louisiana, his was the painting show that launched the Contemporary Arts Center. Despite all that, James Lalande still isn't very well known. The scion of a 'poor but proud' French-speaking Cajun household, Lalande has never played the fame game. A self-styled 'visionary' artist, he paints on clear vinyl, so what we see is the flipside of what he saw as he painted it: colorfully rhapsodic visions of alligators, fish, mermaids, crabs and goddesses, all products of intuition, or as he puts it: 'I follow forms and patterns like a song. When I paint, I become a conductor and a writer at the same time ... It's all in my head.'